Search

We conducted a case-control study in Athens, Greece, to investigate the role of diet in the etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Subjects were 97 incident cases of HCC and 128 controls with no history of cancer admitted for minor ailments in three major hospitals. Information on diet was collected using a validated food frequency questionnaire, and infection with hepatitis virus B (HBV) or C (HCV) was assessed using third-generation assays. Data were modeled through multiple logistic regression. We found no evidence that vegetable intake may reduce the risk of HCC, as reported in earlier investigations. In a multivariate model, only consumption of milk and dairy products appeared to be inversely related to HCC risk (odds ratio = 0.70, 95% confidence interval = 0.49-1.01), but the association was not statistically significant and is likely to have been generated by the multiple comparisons undertaken overall. Our data do not support an association of specific food groups or particular nutrients with the risk of HCC, whether positive or negative for HBV and/or HCV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors investigated the association between dietary iron intake and risk of coronary heart disease by means of a case-control study conducted in Athens, Greece, in January 1990 to April 1991. The case series comprised 329 patients with electrocardiographically confirmed first coronary infarct, or a first positive coronary arteriogram, or both, while the controls were 570 patients from the same study base who presented with minor conditions believed to be unrelated to diet. After adjustment by logistic regression for 14 potentially confounding variables of sociodemographic, life-style and nutritional nature, dietary iron intake was found to be positively associated with risk for coronary disease among men aged 60 years or older (odds ratio (OR) for a monthly increment of 50 mg of iron = 1.47, with 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–2.12) and particularly women aged 60 years or older (OR for a similar increment of iron = 3.61, with 95% CI 1.45–9.01). Additional adjustment for blood cholesterol, as well as systolic blood pressure and blood glucose level, reduced the iron regression coefficient among older men from 1.47 to 1.36, and among older women from 3.61 to 3.51; however, it is not clear whether the change reflects control of residual confounding or blocking of an intermediate pathway. These data are compatible with the hypothesis that excess dietary iron intake increases the risk of coronary heart disease, particularly among older women and men. Am J Epidemiol 1998;147:161-6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the epidemiology of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in a case-control study in greater Athens, Greece. Patients and methods: The study comprised 184 patients surgically treated for BPH within one year of its diagnosis (cases) and 246 patients with no symptoms of BPH who were treated in the same hospitals for minor diseases or conditions (controls). All cases and controls were permanent residents of the greater Athens area, Greece. The data were assessed using unconditional logistic regression. Results: After controlling for age and education, cases and controls had similar distributions for height, body mass index, sibship size and birth order in the parental family, marital status, number of offspring and a series of previous medical diagnoses or surgical operations. The sole exception was surgery for haemorrhoids, that appeared to be related to the incidence of BPH, possibly by chance. There was no evidence that vertex baldness, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption or coffee drinking increased the risk for BPH. Men who had spent most of their lives in a rural rather than an urban environment appeared to be at reduced risk for BPH. Conclusion: The lifestyle factors assessed here have no major effect on the aetiology of BPH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A case-control study exploring the long-term effects of night and afternoon sleep on the occurrence of acute coronary heart disease (CHD) episodes was undertaken in Athens, Greece. The case series consisted of 97 consecutive male patients with an electro cardiographically confirmed CHD episode, admitted during a six-month period in either of the two cardiologic clinics of the largest Greek teaching hospital. The control series consisted of 90 male orthopaedic. opthalmotogic or urologic patients, free from clinical or electrocardiographic evidence of overt CHD, admitted to the same hospital at the same dates as the corresponding cases. All patients were interviewed and examined in the hospital wards during the first week or their hospitalization; the statistical analysis was done by multiple logistic regression, controlling for the confounding influences of socioeconomic variables and several established CHD risk factors. Four of the CHD cases, but none of the controls, repotted occupations involving shift work; these patients were not included in subsequent sleep-focused analyses. The duration of night sleep was shorter among CHD patients than among controls, but the regression-adjusted difference wag slight and statistically non-significant. However, there was a strong, duration-dependent and statistically significant association of afternoon sleep with the occurrence of (at least) non-fatal CHD episodes, indicating that a 30-minute siesta may be related with an almost 30 percent reduction of the corresponding incidence rate. Although the study is relatively small and residual confounding cannot be excluded, the results are not biologically implausible and appear remarkably consistent with the geocultural pattern of CHD occurrence (low incidence of CHD in siesta countries and population groups). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greek devotional activity from the eighth through third centuries included the accumulation of common votive types, many of which exhibited similar motifs and repetitive designs. This paper explores constructed assemblages by focusing on the dedication of objects featuring visual and iconographic "sameness." Building on the work of D. Morgan and J. González, this paper theorizes Greek votive accumulations as larger conglomerations that impact religious experience through the artifacts' very number and ubiquity. Evidence from Athens and Corinth suggests that an individual's personal biography and past movements through the local landscape gave pervasive religious imagery a sense of familiarity and meaningfulness. While the appearance of ubiquitous votives may have been dictated by tradition and manufacturing realities, their use to create monumental votive deposits had phenomenological impact. Drawing on evidence from treasury records and excavated material at a number of Greek sanctuaries, this paper argues that, when they formed assemblages of repetitive religious images, worshippers created larger, dynamic monuments out of individual items. The clustered offerings participated in an "aesthetics of accumulation," visually and physically linking individuals to a network of other worshippers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To examine the secular trend of menarcheal age in Greek girls during the last decade. Methods: Seven hundred and fifty senior high schoolgirls were asked through a questionnaire to report their date of menarche, participation in physical activities and their weight status at menarche. The data were compared with those of a study of 1996. Results: Mean age at menarche (±SD) in 2006 was 12.29 (1.19) and in 1996 it was 12.27 (1.13) years, p = 0.73. Maternal menarcheal age was 13.02 (1.32). There was a significant correlation between age at menarche of the schoolgirls and their mothers, p < 0.0001. There was a significant difference in the age at menarche according to the schoolgirls' perceived weight status. Menarcheal age of obese girls (n = 56) was 11.73 (1.21) years, of normal weight girls (n = 474) was 12.29 (1.21) years and of lean girls (n = 220) was 12.42 (1.14) years, p < 0.001. There was no significant difference in the age at menarche between the girls that participated, 12.23 (1.19), and those that did not participate in sporting activities, 12.32 (1.19), p = 0.31. Conclusion: Levelling-off of the age at menarche over the last 10 years occurred in Greek girls living in Athens. Menarcheal age is influenced by the weight status and maternal menarcheal age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To assess the relation between specific flavonoid classes and peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD), an important manifestation of atherosclerosis.Design:Using data from a case–control study conducted in Greece in 1980 on the nutritional epidemiology of PAOD, we have exploited recently published databases on the content of foods in specific flavonoid classes to assess the relation between intake of these compounds and PAOD.Setting:A major teaching hospital in Athens, Greece.Subjects:Cases were 100 patients with PAOD and controls 100 patients with minor surgical conditions admitted to the same hospital.Interventions:No interventions. All cases and controls were interviewed in the hospital wards, and a 110-food item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire was administered by the same interviewer.Results:Flavonols, flavones and perhaps flavan-3-ols were inversely associated with PAOD risk, the odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) for increments equal to the corresponding standard deviations being 0.41 (0.20–0.86), 0.56 (0.32–0.96) and 0.53 (0.26–1.05), respectively. Total flavonoids were also significantly inversely associated with PAOD.Conclusions:On the basis of these results, the biological properties of flavonoids and evidence concerning their relation to other manifestations of atherosclerosis, we conclude that dietary intake of specific classes of flavonoids, as well as total flavonoids, may have a protective effect against PAOD.Sponsorship:This study was partially supported by a grant to Harvard University by the Samourkas Foundation.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006) 60, 214–219. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602291; published online 19 October 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the many characteristic shapes produced in Corinth during the Archaic and Classical periods was the round-mouthed jug with one or two handles, the so-called “Corinth oinochoe.” The present article examines the typological development of this shape, particularly the version with two handles, from its introduction in the late seventh century until 146 B.C. This development suggests changing customs in male dining at Corinth, particularly in the third quarter of the fifth century and at the end of the fourth. The function of the two-handled variety is briefly considered, as well as the evidence for ceramic connections between Corinth and Athens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the autopsy findings from 111 deaths in the 1999 Athens earthquake as a basis for auditing the emergency response. Background on the subject examined; Methods used in the study; Results of the study conducted.

This paper considers the politics of archaeological practice of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), a major institutional force that has shaped the discipline of Classical archaeology through its educational programs and its sponsorship of archaeological excavations. The current attitudes of ASCSA towards archaeology reflect a long-standing commitment to the tenets of western Hellenism and to the nationalist discourse of the modern Greek state. Here the focus is on events surrounding an archaeological expedition dispatched in 1922 by ASCSA and Harvard University to investigate the ancient Greek city of Colophon in Anatolia. I argue that such critical histories of archae-ological practice are useful in that they can clarify the past sociopolitical conditions in which current archaeological policies took shape and, in so doing, may challenge the assumption that these are the most appropriate avenues for an institution like ASCSA to follow in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]